Fire and Softness

Layah

I wake up warm. So warm, I don’t want to move. Not even a little. There’s a chest pressed against my back, an arm draped across my waist, a hand still tangled with mine in front. I’m swaddled between two walls of heat and scent, cedar smoke and dry pine, summer air and dragonfire. Dylan behind me. Kai in front. My brain takes its sweet time catching up to the fact that I didn’t just dream it. That I really did crawl into Kai’s bed last night wearing nothing but his oversized shirt. That I fell asleep tangled between two men who have every right to call themselves mine and every reason not to push. Which, judging by the tight tension in their bodies and the way they haven’t moved an inch, is exactly what they’ve been doing. I shift slightly, stretching my legs under the blanket. Immediately, both bodies press in closer, as if their instincts are hardwired to keep me surrounded. My cheeks flush as fragments of my dreams resurface… heat, hands, mouths on my skin, teeth grazing my n